The old gentleman from Providence

[retroauro]

Hi,
I didnt buy the book

.I just searched for it on Amazon and found some matching entries.I based my reply on some info i got off the web.Just check out this site http://www.digital-brilliance.com/necron/necron.htm.

Since the veracity of the source cannot be known,It might be a lot of drivel.But it looked intresting,so check it out .

 

[Incognito]

I remember the rats in the walls. In one of the houses I used to live in, it sounded like there were indeed rats in the walls. I kept thinking of the story.

Btw - a couple of times, when I was drunk, and people came round, I would make them sit and listen to me read "the Outsider" aloud. I don;t think I would try that nowadays.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Whoa. That must have been a supremely harrowing experience for them. Actualy, I've always felt HPL stories would be really good for reading aloud - when my eyesight goes, I should hire one of those TV voice-over guys to sit by my deathbed and read HPL stories to me.

 

[Incognito]

I'm sure that Partick Stewart could do a proper job of reading them - not Bri drunk late at night in his student days.

 

[SDNess]

Is Call of Cthulhu a literary novel? Would I be able to read it for English class?

I recently found out about Lovecraft and have obviously never read any of his works.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Call of Cthulhu is actually a short story/novella - but as for literary - really, that depends upon your criteria for definition.

I know one of my English teachers in school absolutely enthused about HP Lovecraft - but I'm not sure that other would have.

What sort of definition would you use for "literary"?

 

[SDNess]

Tons of books...but I will name the ones I've read this year:

1984
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Killer Angels
The Trial
The Stranger
The Pearl
The Old Man and the Sea
Frankenstein
Catch-22
A Tomb for Boris Davidovich
The Dispossessed

Basically, novels that have an agenda - something they want to say to the world - and can be analyzed. They are not just telling a story.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/lovecraft.html

This link ought to help. It's a detailed article on HPL from a literary site called the Modern Word. It also has articles on Marquez, Calvino, Eco, and so on, so I guess that would suggest HPL's work can also be considered as literature.

I don'y know how much of an agenda HPL had, but he did have a very distinct vision of the world, a rationalist, atheist vewpoint and an idea of the ultimate horror of existing in a universe that really does not care about your existance. He embodies this feeling in the form of vastly creepy monsters from the interstellar voids. it might be a bit of a leap to say that, Cthulhu, say, is really a symbol for the indifference of the universe, but it is a possible interpetation. Anyway, the article in the link is written by someone far more qualified than I am to speculate on this, I hope it's useful to you.

 

[Yvienn]

Actually, I've read two books of HPL's novels, but I can't remember English titles. But I think it suffice to read even few of them and they will convey an idea of his works. For there are no original plots, complicated characters or vivid dialogues. I think the one thing that makes his novels attractive is the atmosphere. I can feel the atmosphere of the story very easily and after reading the book "observators out of time" (it may not be the right title, I just translate it from the Polish one) of over 500 pages, I was feeling, how to say, strangely. Like not in my own skin.

I don't know exactly if I like his novels. They seem very alike - and after having read many of them I had the impression that they actually ARE the same - and after some time one can be bored by them, but undoubtfully they have the specific atmosphere. And I think that in this matter HPL is the master.

There's no big gnarly monsters - just a disturbing uncertainly. Superb work.

That's why my favourite novel is "Dreams In The Witch's House" (or sth like that). There were no monsters in it.

Because I read Lovecraft when young, in those days when I read for fun and the acclumulation of knowledge, I can't comment on his technical aspects.

I AM young and am reading it for fun, but I'll comment on his technical aspects. It's not bad, but... the current repetitions of some expressions don't make a good impression. Perhaps he should have worked on his style, but it seems that style was not the most important think for him.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Atmosphere, definitely.

As to style - at least in English, I'd say he had a very marked and distinct style, even if it is not one that I'd recommend others to use. Perhaps this is something that does not come through in translation?

Could 'Observators out of time' be 'The Shadow out of time'? Here it is in English: http://www.templeofdagon.com/mythos/stories/theshadowoutoftime.htm

 

[Brian G Turner]

You're right, Yvien - it is definitely the atrmosphere.

Lovecraft did an excellent job of setting a whole environment up to unsettle you. Yes, there was a lot of repetition, and there was often a lack of plot or character - but it was because he wrote something more akin to landscapes than stories.

 

[Tsujigiri]

Hi

You can actually find most of Lovecrafts work in the form of Audio Books, I'd recommend (http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/).

There is a marvellous version of 'The Haunter of the Dark' audiobook drifting around, of which I have a cassette copy, but I can't find the original anywhere which means I can't get an original copy.

If anyone has any leads on this I'd be very pleased to hear from you.

 

[Mors Profundis]

Why does everybody think of HPL as an old man-he was 47 when he died of cancer.
I wonder if the story about him being lost as a child and wandering into the fish market during squid jigging season is true, the guy did not like tentacles, no not at all, all those little suckers............

 

[Mors Profundis]

The Necronomicon came to HPL in a dream-he wanted to call it 'The Book of the Laws of the Dead' but his Greek was faulty, and he ended up with 'Book of the Dead' or 'Book of Death'.
The tomes are one of my favorite Lovecraftian elements-in one of my tales, I invented a secret organization that went about slipping copies of the Necronomicon and others into jumble sales and used book shops-it can't be all that rare, not with all the times it pops up by accident!

 

[Mors Profundis]

"Starry Wisdom" churches-well, the Mormons and the Scientologists have some beliefs that strike me as kooky, but who's to judge,eh?
The Bible is full of miracles, demons and heroes-Goliath was supposed to be a nephelim, a half angel hybrid, firey chariots, angels with many faces, it goes on.
Better to believe in something, than in nothing, it gives comfort, and if it's not true, well, what's lost?

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Are there any other HPL fans out here? What do you like most about his works and what are your favourite stories?

Cthulhu phtagn!!!

Is George W. Bush the hellspawn of an unholy union betwen a rabid chimpanzee and Shub-Niggurath?

One of my fondest memories was getting my grubby little mitts on a copy of The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Supernatural Tales during my Christmas break in my freshman year of high school and devouring it whole. It was as if the scales had fallen from mine eyes.

That was 22 years ago, but there hasn't been a day since that I haven't felt the inspirational heat of that moment.

Okay, Grandpa Theobald (HPL's pen name) suffered from an awful case of Adjectivitis pejorative and he deliberately eschewed character development in favour of a literary objectivism, but somehow that stately 18th century prose style, combined with 20th century nihlism and an operatic grandeur swept aside whatever shortcomings his tales had and infused them with a potency that has never been equaled since.

Well, the first tale of HPL's that I read was The Shadow Over Innsmouth. A very good choice that (forgive the pun) inserted the hook firmly into my cheek. Reeled in and gasping for air, I sought out his other works. Later I obtained some battered copies of the old Arkham House three volume set of his complete works from the suburban library system. Of his 65 stories, his finest ones, in my opinion, are At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Out of Time and The Colour Out of Space.

How about your choices?

Yours in Cthulhu,

Curt

 

[GOLLUM]

You sure we're not twins Curt?

Same IQs AND same fav Lovecraft books The Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Out of Time and The Colour Out of Space.

Scary...

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

You sure we're not twins Curt?

Same IQs AND same fav Lovecraft books The Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Out of Time and The Colour Out of Space.

Scary...

Ah, Dr. Herbert West would be proud to know that his cloning experiment is working out to plan, to the established time table! What, didn't you hear? He gave up the re-animation game years ago and went into genetics. He now works from an undisclosed location in North Korea.

Sure, he has to wade his way through dinner conversation with Kim Jong Il, droning on about his demented plots to invade Hollywood and force a reconciliation between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. But the money and research facilities are killer. And I hear that the barbecue pork is to die for.

 

[Nesacat]

It's probably the tainted blood that had been slumbering and was awakened when the first tale was read.

I started with the Cats of Ulthar and have not looked back since; though I have been spending more and more time on the beach, watching.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

It's probably the tainted blood that had been slumbering and was awakened when the first tale was read.

I started with the Cats of Ulthar and have not looked back since; though I have been spending more and more time on the beach, watching.

Hi Nesa:

Hmmm, I don't think the kitties will be able save you from the Deep Ones if they decide to invade. Just remember to keep a good pair of running shoes at hand!